The Edge

Documentarist Barney Douglas's debut feature Warriors (2015) revealed the sheer joy with which a group of Kenyan Maasai approach cricket. However, in his second cricket-related film he takes a considered insider insight into the highs and lows of professional sport by focusing on the intense pressure involved in representing England at Test level. Covering the years in which England rose from seventh to top the world rankings for the first time in 2011, this account of Zimbabwean Andy Flower's tenure as coach is full of dressing-room banter from the likes of irrepressible spinner Graeme Swann and paceman James Anderson. But, while Douglas makes splendid use of off-field tour footage and images of a pre-Ashes extreme training camp in Bavaria, he tempers the chronicle of the team's relentless rise with troubling revelations from skipper Andrew Strauss, bowler Steve Finn and South African imports Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior and Jonathan Trott about the strain players feel both out in the middle and in the media spotlight. The pacing and emphasis are a bit wayward in places, but this serves as an eye-opening reminder that cricket is much more than just a game.